


Menger Sponge

by ERNest



Category: Umineko no Naku Koro ni | When the Seagulls Cry
Genre: Cages, Captivity, Gen, Metafiction, fractals
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-04
Updated: 2021-02-04
Packaged: 2021-03-16 09:07:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 226
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29204847
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ERNest/pseuds/ERNest
Summary: In the three-dimensional world of reality it has zero mass. Not only is it not endless, it doesn't even exist.
Kudos: 1





	Menger Sponge

The Menger Sponge is a devious chessboard, but it is also a filigreed cage. You measure out your squares, carve down the moves you and your opponent can each make, but no matter how big the opening becomes you can’t fly through it. Always, your wingtips graze the edges or the corners of the perforated cube, and your only option is to begin the game anew.

With each iteration, the surface area grows, but only at the cost of its mass. You twist the story in on itself, forcing your favorite toy to cover the same ground with new pitfalls, cackling all the while. And in the meantime you lose depth yourself. The story of your history gets more complex, but the story isn’t you, oh talking bird, so you must be losing.

You are the heart of yourself, and the heart is always the first to go; the center surrounded by substance that is ever more insubstantial. And yet. You refuse to die or fly away, though you could end this at any time. Why don’t you just give up and die? Isn’t your cage frail enough by now? But a witch will never reform, and so you can’t, even if, for a moment – no. No, you couldn’t have wanted to.

Good morning, it’s time for the next game to begin. Come, remember the board.


End file.
